Betrothed From Birth
by Sue-Drae
Summary: The Sandaime underestimated Karura's and Kushina's friendship. Now, with a betrothal contract come to light, he must make a choice: will he send Minato's and Kushina's son to Suna, or their daughter? Follow Namikaze Erina's quest for safety and identity as she struggles to find out where her loyalties lie. Chuunin Exams-centric Gaara/OC
1. The Jinchuuriki Problem

Sarutobi Hiruzen was, for not the first nor the last time, at a loss while searching for a solution to his newest problem. Not for the first time, he silently cursed the seemingly innocent scroll that was still lying open on his desk. He glared at the Yondaime Hokage's signature, hoping in some small part of him that the words on the parchment would change before his eyes. However, the aging man knew that they would not.

He picked up the scroll once more, rereading it for what must have been the fourteenth time, trying his hardest to find a loophole he could exploit. His eyes darted between the scroll in his hands and another official document lying on his desk in an open manilla folder. The words _Certificate of Betrothal_ mocked Hiruzen in their elegant script.

He hadn't known how close Kushina had been to the Kazekage's wife, Karura. He hadn't even considered that Kushina and Minato could have crafted this, let alone do it without his knowledge.

The document lying on his desk was a contract binding Konoha and Suna in a way no paper treaty could. A marriage between the children of the Yondaime Hokage and Kazekage... Neither side could breach that sort of contract without starting a very long and bloody war, something neither wanted after the Third Great Shinobi War.

_Minato couldn't have known about... _this_,_ Hiruzen was forced to conclude as he reached farther across his desk, picking up another two files. Both files were incredibly small but that was understandable seeing as the two detailed within the files were barely thirty-six hours old.

"Twins," Hiruzen grumbled to himself. He had the option of choosing which of Minato's newborn children to send to Konoha: the girl or the boy, the jinchuuriki holding the Kyuubi's yin chakra or the jinchuuriki holding the Kyuubi's yang chakra.

Hiruzen had never heard of such a thing, of the separating of a biju's chakra in such a way, but he had two jinchuuriki on his hands that, when they were older, would make an undeniably powerful tag team. If only they could stay together...

Hiruzen stared at the tiny files, trying to decide which one to send to Sunagakure. When he finally came up with a decision, he looked up at Minato's portrait. The Minato in the portrait did not judge his decision, but he didn't forgive the old man for it either.

Hiruzen had never felt so old until he began to write out his reply to the Yondaime Kazekage, promising that the babe would be travelling to Sunagakure as soon as she was old enough.

Namikaze Erina would leave the village her father died to protect in just a few years. Hopefully she would return on a mission when she becomes a kunoichi. Hiruzen had no doubt that she would become a kunoichi, and a brilliant one at that with her parents being who they were.

He would regret not being able to watch her grow into that kunoichi.

_Oh well,_ he sighed to himself. He stood, walking to the window to look out over the village that was, once again, his to protect. _At least I can keep Naruto-kun close to me as he grows up, close to Konoha._

"Is that from the Hokage, tousan?" a curious voice asked. Two ponytails were visible over the edge of the Kazekage's desk and he was sure that, if his daughter were any taller, he'd be able to see the other two. But for now, Temari was barely tall enough to see over the desk on her toes.

"It is," the Yondaime Kazekage confirmed, nodding. Temari squealed with excitement and dashed around the desk, trying to reach for the letter. Her father only chuckled, holding it up out of the three year old's reach.

"No fair, Daddy!"

"Yes it is, munchkin. This is a missive directly from the Hokage. Village leader eyes only," he said teasingly. Temari crossed her arms, huffing impatiently. The Kazekage's eyes softened. Temari looked so much like her mother when she did that...

"But I wanna see!"

And, just like that, the small blonde girl skirted around his defenses, gold dust or no. The Kazekage was powerless to say no to his only daughter's whims and offered her the scroll without any more resistance. After staring at it for a few moments, Temari pushed it back at her father.

"What's that say?" she said, pointing at a line of kanji. Her father's lips quirked into a smile as Temari climbed up onto her father's lap with some effort, brandishing the scroll in her father's face to get him to focus on the line she was having trouble with it.

"It says," the man began, taking the scroll from his daughter so that he could read it, "_Thank you for your letter, Kazekage-dono. It is good that you sent word, otherwise the contract might have been lost in the chaos surrounding reconstruction after the Kyuubi Incident. Speaking of which, thank you for your concerns regarding my people. The late Yondaime was very quick in reacting to the threat, so that we had minimal injuries and even fewer deaths. As to the matter for which you wrote me, I have found the contract and I do intend to honor it, as was Minato's wish. His daughter, Namikaze Erina-_"

"His daughter, daddy?" Temari voiced excitedly. "So I'm gonna have a little sister?"

"Aren't two little brothers enough for you?" the Kazekage asked teasingly. Temari thought about it with a frown before shaking her head.

"Nope! And boys are icky, anyway!" she declared. The Kazekage smiled genuinely, one hand leaving the scroll to tickle his unsuspecting victim.

"Yes, they are," he said seriously. _If only she'd always think that..._

But, for now, Temari was still his little girl. She, Kankuro, and Gaara were his to care for, and as Minato's girl would be.

If only Karura had lived long enough to see Kushina's little girl. The two women would have been intolerable while they debated whose girl would kick more ass when they became kunoichi, but it would have been a sight to see... If Minato and he couldn't spar, as opposing village leaders, they could battle vicariously through their wives.

The Kazekage sighed. The world would be a little less bright without Konoha's Yellow Flash.


	2. No More

"Hey, eyes up, ginger." The woman was talking to her, she knew. Everyone knew her name but no one said it. Erina. _Erina_. _ERINA_. She said the name to herself sometimes, just to make sure she remembered it. Only a handful of people called her Erina, and they were precious to her. There was Yashamaru, who took care of her and Gaara. There was Gaara. She wasn't sure how to feel about Gaara but she knew that they were the same. It was hard not to trust someone who knew your pain and your heart. And then there was the Kazekage, who didn't look at her as a waste of space, but someone with _potential_. She wasn't entirely sure what her potential was for, but she craved his acceptance and those little smiles he sometimes had for her.

Erina obeyed the order, forcing her eyes to meet the eyes of the much taller woman in front of her. Glances at her equipment, her clothing, and the small scars darting across her exposed skin led Erina to imagine this woman was a chuunin. Judging by her age, she had likely served in the last few years of the war. There were only a few things she could want: to hurt her or to kill her were the most likely.

"Good morning, shinobi-san," Erina murmured as politely as she could, resisting the urge to lower her eyes back to the sandy road. The chuunin's lips quirked up into a menacing smile.

"What happened to your friend?" Erina knew who this was: Gaara. She and Gaara didn't really have any clue how to feel around each other but Erina doubted that they were friends. She didn't think either of them could have friends, let alone be friends with each other. After all, weren't they monsters? Monsters couldn't be friends with anyone, could they?

"He's with his tou-san," Erina answered warily. The woman's smile widened into a grin and Erina took half a step back.

"Well... One out of two isn't bad for a day's work, now is it?" the woman asked herself quietly, her hand disappearing into the holster tied securely around her thigh. Erina's breath hitched as a razor sharp kunai glinted in the light as it was exposed.

_No_.

Erina spun on her heel and took off running but the chuunin was faster. They were always faster. One wrong turn, a wrong choice, and she was cornered. Eyes wide and painfully defenseless, Erina froze in fear as the chuunin stalked closer, taking her time and enjoying her power over the small six year old.

"Leave me alone!" Erina cried out, throwing her hands up over her face as the kunai arched down towards her neck. The woman's face twisted with victory, but then pain as a tiny hand grabbed her wrist, stopping her hand and threatening to crush her wrist. She looked at her target and her eyes shone with fear as unforgiving red eyes stared back.

"No," the chuunin whispered to herself. "No!"

"Leave. Me. Alone!" Erina repeated. The monster moved faster than the chuunin could see, leaving a toxic reddish flash in her wake. The kunai was ripped from her hand but, before she could react or counter, the woman was on the ground, gasping for air as the kunai was driven deeper and deeper into her gut. Blood splattered across the child's face, nearly matching the girl's vibrant red hair. All the while, those eyes stared back at her, black and red and completely devoid of remorse.

"You-" the woman gasped. "I just wanted- you... to die. Just- die!"

Her uninjured hand flew to her kunai holster and drew another blade but the small child slapped it out of her hand. Erina's hand twisted the kunai in the woman's wound, digging deeper until the light faded from the woman's watery eyes.

The danger passed, the red glow cloaking Erina began to fade. The child gasped, tears immediately coming to her eyes as she staggered back. The kunai fell to the ground and clattered as it slid away, leaving a trail of blood on the sandy alley.

Erina fell away from the body, backing away until her back hit the opposite wall. Falling to the ground, she shut her eyes, turning her head away from the blood as her tears mixed into the blood flecked on to her face.

The village quieted as Erina lost herself in that little alley with only the dead woman for company. Only lifting her head out of her hands once the sun began to set, Erina took a steadying breath and furiously scrubbed at her face, trying to get rid of the blood. Swallowing hard as she looked at the woman's body, Erina met the chuunin's dead eyes.

"I'm..."

The words never came, though. She was out of apologies. Steeling her expression, Erina bent down and withdrew the kunai from the woman's gut. She would need it.

"That is the second incident this month alone, Erina," the Kazekage said, his tone scolding as if he were still talking to a child. While it was true that Erina was only ten years old, she couldn't be considered a child any longer.

"Genin Nadeshiko instigated. I retaliated. He should be glad he is merely hospitalized," she responded coolly. "If you'd prefer, I can leave little more than a puddle of blood like Gaara does."

"Erina," the leader responded sharply. "This behavior is unacceptable. I understand that you are getting restless within the village but it is unsafe to have you in the outside world so early."

"Gaara went on a mission with Temari and Kankuro two weeks ago! Why is Gaara allowed to leave and I'm not?!"

"Gaara has a defense far superior to yours. You are far more vulnerable, especially since your control over the Kyuubi-"

"My control over the Kyuubi is greater than Gaara's over the Shukaku," Erina interrupted, annoyed.

"Your control is nowhere near complete and your other skills are not at a level where it would be safe to risk you outside of the village. You are an asset to this village, Erina."

"You say that like other villages will actively be trying to kidnap me," Erina growled. "Konoha gave me up. Fuck them."

"Language," he chided lightly, well aware that he wasn't going to be able to reign the girl's temper in for much longer.

"Konoha obviously doesn't care about me. Iwa would kill me as soon as they saw me. Kumo would only see me as a broodmare. Kiri... Well, Kiri might be able to make me an offer but I doubt they could pay me to go there, from what I've heard about it."

"There are larger concerns than you _deciding_ to leave Suna," the Kazekage said, his voice betraying his waning patience.

"But-"

"That is enough!" he declared, silencing the girl.

Erina was furious. She was _strong_. She had come a long way and had spent years distancing herself from the memory of that terrified little girl who was scared of her own shadow. There was only so much strength she could gain from within the village and, though having access to private tutors and off-duty jounins certainly helped, she needed _fight_. She needed to lose and win and figure out where she stood in the pecking order. And she wasn't going to stop fighting until she was at the top of it.

She was sick of feeling weak. She was sick of being overlooked or undermined. She was strong and, more than that, she was determined to realize the dream she'd had for as long as she could remember.

Namikaze Erina would never stand down until she was respected as a member of Sunagakure. And then she was going to take vengeance for her old pains and scars, starting with the home that had given her up without any mixed feelings.

Konohagakure was going to pay for the day they pushed her aside.


	3. Outside at Last

"Genin Namikaze and Sabaku no Gaara reporting for duty," Erina said to the chuunin at the desk, resisting the urge to roll back onto her heels in anticipation. It was her first mission, and it was with Gaara! Now she could gauge where they stood against each other. It might be a mission that would be made easier with cooperation, but why cooperate when they could compete? She doubted Gaara would be willing to do much more than leave her uninjured.

Gaara had definitely changed after Yashamaru's death. Erina had already begun to harden her heart so she wasn't as affected but, for the Shukaku vessel, his betrayal had hit hard. The sweet and tortured boy that he once was disappeared, leaving a husk behind. The new Gaara was cold and deadly to anyone that impeded his goal of existence.

Erina wasn't wholly unaffected, however. The bright colors she wore as a child were gone. Now, as a proud genin, she wore a dark tan dress that was tied about her waist with a thin, blood red sash. The dress extended to her knees and had a long sleeve on the left side and no sleeve on the right, baring her arm. She wore dark shorts that went to mid thigh, exposed by the large slits up the sides of her dress. Black boots and greaves protected her legs from attack and the elements. Her Suna hitai-ate was worn like a headband, keeping her cropped red hair out of her violet eyes.

"Ah, yes. The Kazekage left this for you two," the chuunin said, pulling a mission scroll from a small pile. He passed it to me and I opened it curiously. "B-rank assassination. Your target is Yakuzi Moto. Notorious mobster with genin-level training from Tanigakure."

"Excellent..."

The chuunin resisted a shiver at the enthusiasm, the thrill of the chase, reflected in the girl's bright eyes.

"I still think you cheated," Erina accused with a scowl, trying to keep her breathing steady as her lungs burned for relief. Her ears were carefully attuned to the footfalls and voices behind her and she was more than aware that they were slowly but steadily advancing on them.

"I did not cheat. I merely used what tools were available to me to ensure the completion of the mission," Gaara replied in a monotone. "Now, if you have enough breath to talk, you can run faster."

Erina scoffed at the almost casual jab before being forced to muffle a curse as she jostled her arm. Of course she had been injured on her first mission outside of the village. It wasn't a horrific injury- she'd gotten worse training- but it was healing much slower than normal and, in a deadly game of cat and mouse, she didn't enjoy being a wounded mouse.

"We need to get somewhere safe," Gaara murmured, surprising Erina. "You can't defend yourself as easily in that state and I cannot control my sand to keep you protected."

"Don't be stupid. I'll be healed in a few more minutes... Why do you even care?"

"You said that twenty minutes ago," Gaara pointed out tensely. After a brief pause, he continued, saying, "Father would be displeased if I returned without you." Erina didn't reply, not wanting to acknowledge that he was right. Instead of responding to Gaara, she turned my focus inwards, feeling the Kyuubi prod at their link.

_What is it?_

**You managed to get yourself poisoned, kit. I'm working on it. Whatever was on that ninjato, it's persistent. I'm surprised you can still move your fingers. You suffered minor nerve damage before I could stop it.**

_Nerve damage? What kind of poison was on that?_

**I don't know, a nerve agent?** the giant fox drawled boredly. **I have to burn out the poison before I can get your arm taken care of. Just keep running. If it comes to a stand-off, you can handle enough tails to take care of them.**

_Thank you, Kurama-kun._ The Kyuubi snorted.

**I'd rather give you a sliver of power than die to some no-name weaklings.**

_Either way, thank you._

**Yeah, yeah. Don't get used to it, kit. I'm still expecting you to track down the rest of my chakra. I'm missing a lot of aggression over here.**

Refocusing on her surroundings, Erina grinned tiredly as red chakra began to prod at the seal keeping it at bay. She released her control ever so slightly, allowing the Kyuubi to give her a quick boost. It wouldn't last long, she knew, but it would allow her to get ahead while he finished neutralizing the poison.

"Gaara!" she called. His eyes darted back to her and, after looking at her for just a moment, he nodded swiftly. He immediately picked up the pace, leaving grains of sand flying behind him as Erina bulleted ahead. In almost no time at all the two had begun pulling away from their pursuers but neither slowed until exhaustion began to pull at Erina's limbs as Kurama's chakra receded once more.

**Don't get used to it, kit. Watch out for raccoon boy; he looks like he's gonna collapse.**

Erina turned her eyes to Gaara and it was true. To a civilian, they might not suspect anything was wrong but he was breathing heavily and, as she watched, his sand was helping to push him forward so that he didn't have to push off with his legs as hard.

"We're almost back into neutral territory," she announced, glancing around at the forest around me. "... Well, if you count Hi no Kuni as neutral ground."

"It counts," Gaara said in a low voice.

"So we will make camp a few miles across the border." Gaara nodded, just as tired as Erina. She knew that he was also just as relieved when they finally stopped running and landed in a small thicket of trees, growing close enough to each other to provide some cover. The two set up camp quickly, just throwing down a few blankets and eating a couple of tasteless protein bars for food before settling in for the night.

"I'll watch," Gaara said, his voice low and smooth once more. Erina scowled.

"No. You'll wake me up for the second watch. You might not sleep because of Shukaku, but you need to rest, Gaara."

"I'll rest in Suna."

"No, you won't. You'll wait till _I'm_ asleep and then sneak out. I know you better than anyone else, so don't try that. Wake me up in a few hours."

"Hai, hai... I will," Gaara promised. Erina studied him for a long moment, trying to figure out if he was lying or not. Guessing that he was but not wanting to fight with him over the matter, the girl turned over in her sleeping bag and fell asleep quickly, even on the hard ground.


	4. A New Mission

Opening her eyes to see rays of sunlight drifting across the sky, Erina scowled and sat up immediately.

"Gaara," she growled. The redhead looked down at her from the tree he was perched in, sending her a vaguely surprised look.

"Hmm... I suppose I forgot to wake you up for your watch," he said, glancing up at the sky. "Silly me."

While on other days Erina might have teased Gaara for using the word 'silly' in casual conversation, especially in regards to himself, she was not in the mood at the moment.

"You were supposed to wake me up!" she called up at him angrily. "Did you get any rest?"

"It was a slow night," Gaara shrugged. Erina took that to mean that he had meditated most of the time, but meditation wasn't always enough. The two had done a lot of work over the past few days, and had only been able to stay in one place for a few hours at a time, giving neither much time to rest or recuperate from the activity. "We should leave. A Konoha patrol came pretty close to us last night, but they skirted around us."

"Do you think they sensed us?" Erina asked. Gaara frowned lightly.

"I don't know. They had a Hyuuga with them, but he didn't alert his teammates to our presence, if he saw us. I think it's more likely that he didn't see us at all."

"We should leave," Erina echoed him with a nod. "We don't know how far away the next patrol will be and I don't want to be dragged into Konoha."

"They'd probably not torture you," Gaara said in what was probably meant to be a joking tone. "Or, at least, nothing permanent. Light scarring, perhaps."

"Whatever. Let's get out of here. And don't think you've gotten away with the whole watch thing. I'll get you back for that in Suna."

"What are you going to do? Knock me out and let Shukaku terrorize the village so I can get some shut-eye?" he asked, amused. Erina shook my head, a devious smile coming to her lips.

"Actually, I was just going to tell Temari."

"You wouldn't." Those seafoam green eyes narrowed at her dangerously. The redheaded girl shrugged.

"Wouldn't I?" she asked, finishing clean-up, careful not to leave a trace of their presence. Now done, Erina circled the tree Gaara was still sitting in slowly before grinning and running off towards home. "Last one to Suna has to give the mission report!"

"You play dirty," Erina scowled towards Gaara, dragging herself through Suna's gates three days after challenging Gaara back to Suna. It hadn't been her brightest idea to race the Ichibi jinchuuriki through an area comprised largely of desert sands, but she would pay for it as promised.

"I merely accepted your challenge," he responded coolly. Erina scoffed.

"Yes, I had expressly given my permission for you to throw a fucking sand dune at me to slow me down."

"You were drawing on the Kyuubi's chakra. Was I not allowed to use my own abilities?"

"You know that Kurama only gave me enough chakra to make me as fast as you, and even then you probably could have outrun me," Erina shot back. Gaara only shrugged lightly, gesturing towards the village with a hand.

The guards at the gate seemed increasingly uncomfortable as the exchange continued. Erina glared at one of them lightly.

"What's your problem? Never seen a couple of demon spawn having a conversation?" she snapped. The man paled dramatically and she smirked, rolling her eyes. "Jeez, relax. You'd think that Gaara-kun and I just came back from killing someone... Oh wait..."

"Never call me that again."

"Aw, is Erina-chan being mean to you?"

"Shut up."

"Genin Namikaze Erina and Sabaku no Gaara, reporting a successful mission," Erina said as clearly as she could to the chuunin at the Missions Desk. He glanced up at her with disdain and she wondered absently what he would do if she drew on just enough of Kurama's chakra to turn her eyes blood red and her teeth to fangs. _He might even piss himself._

**You want to? **Kurama chuckled mischievously. **No one gets away with insulting my flesh-bag. Except me, of course.**

_Aw, Kura-kun really _does_ care,_ Erina said dryly to herself. The Kyuubi growled in warning.

"Report," the chuunin said, holding a brush to a blank mission report scroll. He'd put in the basic details and then give Erina the scroll to write the detailed report. It was such a bother.

"Mission rank B, type specialization assassination. The target was mobster Yakuzi Moto, trained formally as a genin of Yugakure and then dishonorably discharged due to importation of weapons, human slaves, and narcotics. Target was brought down successfully via asphyxiation by sand during his sleep, credited to Sabaku no Gaara."

The chuunin wrote out a few more lines on the scroll after she had finished speaking before rolling it up and handing it to Erina.

"Return the scroll to this office within one week to receive payment," he said, at least striving to be professional towards the two children. Erina accepted the scroll from him with a nod and turned towards the exit, Gaara following behind her silently.

Months passed and a pattern was struck up. Gaara would continue taking missions with his siblings but, as the Kazekage became more and more comfortable with Erina outside of the village, he was often pulled off for other missions. The two generally had a step-in jounin to lead their missions but, other than that, they were left unsupervised.

Training with the Kyuubi and the Ichibi was kicked up another notch in recognition of the new arrangement. The Sunagakure Council determined that they could become an unstoppable force if they wielded their demonic chakra as a tag team. It was difficult to mesh the two styles together but, as time passed, the two grew more attuned to each other and an interesting phenomena was discovered.

Erina was proven to be the one person able to calm Gaara out of a killing spree. Whether it was her own attitude or the presence of the Kyuubi chakra startling the Shukaku into submission, Erina was able to smack sense into the boy. While the first few dry runs were terrifying for the Kyuubi jinchuuriki, it was a useful ability to wield. It also had the added bonus of winning her points with the Suna populace.

Baby steps towards her goal of village wide respect. Baby steps.

Her other goal was almost within reach, especially with the next mission she and Gaara were assigned. It was poetic justice in a way; Konoha had given her up and kept her brother. Now that she was strong, she would fight him in the Chuunin Exams and destroy him, and then celebrate by tearing the village apart brick by brick.

Life was good.

"What will you do if you face Uzumaki Naruto during the course of the mission?" Gaara asked quietly. Erina glanced up at the boy with a raised eyebrow. He was perched in her window, one hand lazily manipulating balls of sand to spin, suspended in air.

"I'm offended that you have to ask."

"What will you do?" he repeated. The spheres of sand shifted into perfect cubes, sharp and exact as they danced around each other.

"Defeat him. Knock him out if possible, kill him if necessary. He may be my brother in blood, but he is no family of mine. You are more family to me than he."

Erina didn't understand what was so difficult to grasp that both the Kazekage and Gaara were directing this type of question at her. Konoha was not her home; Suna was. It was Suna, with its harsh climate and harsher people, that allowed her to become what she needed to be. The people of Suna may not have coddled her or anything along those lines, but what would have happened if they did? She would have been weak, spineless. A spineless kunoichi is a worthless one and Erina would slit her own throat before allowing her to be seen as worthless.

After much deliberation, it was decided that Gaara and Erina would be teamed together for the invasion of Konoha. They would be given a third team member, a chuunin young enough to pose as a genin, and the jounin commander would accompany them as their sensei to both keep and eye on the jinchuuriki and size up Konoha's forces and defenses.

Upon meeting their third teammate, Erina and Gaara immediately disliked him. The chuunin shifted between two moods: scared shitless and arrogant. The first time Erina had met him, just before they left Sunagakure to get to Konohagakure early enough to settle into the village and acquaint ourselves with its basic defenses, he was nearly shaking.

The boy- Erina didn't bother to learn his name, assuming that Gaara or she would probably tire of him enough to kill him as soon as they didn't need a teammate- was about sixteen years old to their twelve. He'd been promoted to chuunin in the field after a mission went horribly wrong and he, out of sheer dumb luck and some very poor decision making on the side of the opposition, ended up saving the lives of one of his teammates as well as his sensei. The fact that his other teammate died an agonizing and fiery death was apparently ignored. He was short for a guy, about 5'6", with stringy blond hair that always looked like it needed to be washed and the beginnings of a moustache.

As soon as it became apparent that neither Gaara nor Erina were going to kill him merely for existing, the boy took that to mean that they respected him as their superior and then proceeded to regale the two with tales of his victories over foreign shinobi as if they were his little kouhai. Erina was very doubtful of the tale involving how he single handedly crippled an Uchiha not two years ago, seeing as one of the Uchiha had gone insane and murdered everyone in his clan aside from his little brother. If What's-His-Name had met and defeated Uchiha Sasuke, the brat wouldn't have been an objective for Gaara and her to eliminate early on. If he had met Uchiha Itachi... Erina doubted that there would have been enough of him to put in a thimble.

Which would have been fine by her, as the boy kept going on and on about his self-inflated career.

"Can I kill him yet?" Gaara asked Erina lowly, coming closer to speak. She laughed, smirking towards the teenaged chuunin.

"I don't think we brought any extras. We'll be able to ditch him in Konoha, though."

"Can't we just ditch him now? It's not like the other teams will miss either of us," Gaara replied. She frowned but shook her head.

"If we leave the group, Baki-san or one of the other jounin will report us to the Kazekage. No... We can part ways once we get to the village."

"I'll hold you to that."

"Hey, did I tell you guys about that time I got in a fight with the Tsuchikage's granddaughter? I almost felt bad for beating her; she was pretty hot."

Erina resisted the urge to punch something, mainly What's-His-Name's face.

She was slightly comforted by the fact that, by the way that Gaara's hand twitched, he was entertaining the thought of crushing the chuunin to a bloody pulp with his sand.

If only...


	5. Reasons to Exist

The jinchuurikis' third teammate was going to get his throat slit. Less than an hour after the Suna contingent arrived in Konoha, he made a scene.

"That hurt, you little brat," What's-His-Name growled, picking up a small boy by the front of his shirt. The boy's long scarf trailed down, almost touching the ground even as its owner was lifted up to What's-His-Name's face. The boy's companions looked on with worry and fear for their friend. There were two kids about the small boy's age, and then another two around Erina's age. She guessed that they were also genin by the Konoha hitai-ates they wore.

"Konohamaru!" a blond boy wearing a rather ugly orange jumpsuit called out, clearly concerned. Erina frowned at his blue eyes before her own eyes widened in recognition. She's seen his picture before. It had been in her briefing. _So soon?_

"I'm sorry," the girl, with oddly pink hair, said. Erina wondered if she had a bloodline limit; with hair that color, it was more than possible. "We were just fooling around!"

"Hey, stop it! Put him down, dattebayo!" The boy Erina believed to be Naruto shouted. What's-His-Name's hand tightened around the boy's shirt.

"I think I'll just play around with him until the others catch up," he smirked. The boy began kicking at him futilely, making the teenager just smile cruelly. "You're pretty lively, brat."

Fist tightening, Erina watched as Naruto growled at my teammate and began running at him. Before Naruto could get close to the teenager, she jumped in between them. Carefully deflecting the punch that Naruto threw at her idiot of a stand-in teammate, Erina threw a senbon at her teammate, striking the shoulder of the arm holding the boy. The paralytic agent coating the senbon did its work quickly and her teammate released the boy, his fingers unable to hold onto the kid's shirt any longer. Erina stepped closer to the boy, briefly looking him over to make sure he was uninjured.

"E-Erina," the teenager gasped. She didn't turn to face him.

"You know... I _really_ hate bullies," she growled. "You alright, kid?"

"H-Hai!" he yelped. Erina looked towards Naruto, who was only just recovering from the block.

"You're fine, right?" Erina asked. Instead of looking relieved, Naruto looked even more angry.

"I could've gotten him!"

"And then there would have been an international incident." She brandished the hitai-ate tied around her neck towards the group. "I apologize for my teammate's actions. I assure you, it won't happen again."

"Who are you?" the pink haired girl asked, her voice light. Erina glanced towards her.

"Suna genin. You should get out of the tree now. Party's over." The raven haired boy in the tree did a very poor job at hiding his surprise at being caught. As he stood from the tree branch he had been crouched on, Erina spotted the Uchiha fan on his shirt. "Let's go."

Uchiha Sasuke's eyes betrayed his confusion before his eyes snapped wide open. He froze as he finally noticed Gaara standing upside down on the tree branch above him. Gaara disappeared in a swirl of sand before reappearing beside his fellow jinchuuriki. He glared lightly at What's-His-Name before walking away.

"Wait!" the pink haired girl called as the pair turned, all but demanding that What's-His-Name follow along silently. Erina paused. "You've identified yourselves as Suna genin and, without question, Hi no Kuni and Kaze no Kuni are allied nations, but the arbitrary coming and going of shinobi is supposed to be prohibited by the treaty. State your purpose!"

"To invade your village and crush it to sawdust so that Suna can once again be on top," Erina said dryly. The pink haired girl flinched and Erina smirked. "Or, that is what I would say if I was actually here to destroy Konoha. At the moment, I'm here to take the Chuunin Exams with my teammates here. You should be told about it today or tomorrow by your senseis."

"I find that hard to believe," the girl murmured to Naruto. Erina rolled her eyes and grabbed her permit.

"See? Traveling papers, signed by the Kazekage and approved by the Hokage. Until the end of the Chuunin Exams, my teammates and I are free to travel between the two villages as necessary. Now, we'll be going now." The three of us began to walk away again until-

"Oi." Erina glanced back and scoffed.

"What do you want, Uchiha?"

"You know my name. I do not know yours. What is it?" he asked, eyes narrowed. The redhead only yawned.

"If you don't want people to know your name, stop advertising it. Although, I do wish you luck. I'm sure you'll be very easy to capture and force into fathering an army of Uchiha. Let's go."

"I was right. You saw him. He was weak, without conviction," Erina murmured to Gaara. The two lay out on the roof, trying to escape What's-His-Name's snoring in the hopes of getting some peace and quiet. It was hard, though. Even late at night, Konoha seemed full of activity. There were always lights on, always people moving... It was hard to see the stars.

"So you will feel nothing in cutting him down?" Gaara asked softly, sounding more curious than anything.

"Naruto and I share blood, but that is all. He and I share no history. There is no shared pain between us. You saw his stupid grin. He will never understand me and I will never understand him. Without understanding, there is no compassion. If his life threatens my home, I will end it. It is that simple."

"You always complicated things with your morals. Why is this so different?"

"He is ignorant, not innocent... If I were standing between you and your goals... If I were attempting to deny your existence, what would you do?" Erina asked, turning to look into her companion's seafoam eyes. His eyes narrowed ever so slightly and he glanced away.

"I never considered," he murmured. "I suppose... I would stop you. But I wouldn't kill you."

"Yes, you would," Erina said, shaking her head gently. "There would be no other way to stop me if your end became my reason for existence."

"Then I would devote my existence to stopping you."

"An unstoppable force meeting an immovable object... I wonder which of us would snap first," Erina wondered aloud. When Gaara stayed silent, she continued. "Would you be able to change?"

"If being unable to change my purpose in order to assure my existence was impossible, I guess I wouldn't deserve my continued existence. As you said, without conviction, one is weak."

"Changing your goal to diverting me would shift your attention away from others. Wouldn't you be weaker against other targets?"

"By that logic, you are weaker for focusing on Konoha," Gaara replied. Erina smiled wryly, turning her head to look back at the night sky.

"Perhaps..."


	6. Ibiki's Test

"Hey, why are we-"

"Stop talking," Gaara ordered.

And that was that. What's-His-Name was silent as the trio walked past Room '301' and continued up to the real third floor.

All of Konoha's rookie teams were ridiculous. Not only were most of them wearing loud and obnoxious colors, they themselves were loud and obnoxious. There were a few exceptions but, on the whole, it appeared as if they _wanted_ to be cut down in the field.

"The older one, he's showing the Konoha rookies information on the other applicants," Gaara reported in a low tone. Erina frowned; as a genin, those records should not be available to him. "The Uchiha asked about someone named Rock Lee, a taijutsu specialist. The one in green, from earlier... Now he's asked about me." Gaara scowled before smirking. "There's not much information, though he can see how many missions I've done."

"Those records would be available, but not to a Konoha genin," she murmured. Gaara nodded. "Anything else?"

"Naruto's asked about you. They can see your mission log as well... And... It shows your status as a jinchuuriki. Or, at least Yakushi mentioned that you possessed demonic chakra."

"What?" Erina asked, bewildered. "Why didn't it show yours, then?"

"Perhaps when he made the cards he didn't have full access to Suna's records. If he's had access to Konoha's files, the Kyuubi sealing might still be on record," Gaara reasoned. Erina grimaced, nodding. "It seems that that's all on personal information. He's explaining where the various genin come from..."

"Alright, nothing we need to worry about. We've had that intel for weeks."

"Hey, the Oto team's moving," the idiot pointed out. The team's token female resisted the urge to sigh.

"Clearly. They're not moving towards us, so shut up and watch them. They'll probably reveal part of their hand before we even have to fight."

"Keh, it's not like it'll make a difference if we don't know what they can do. We can take them-"

"I will kill you before these Exams are over," Gaara promised. Rather intelligently, the idiot closed his mouth faster than a bear trap around an idiot chuunin's leg.

"Shut up, pipsqueaks!" A heavily scarred man wearing a black trench coat over a grey uniform appeared out of the smoke, backed by a dozen chuunin proctors. "Sorry to keep you waiting. I am Morino Ibiki, proctor of the first test in the Chuunin Exams."

Erina and Gaara exchanged a glance, neither too perturbed.

"You, from the Hidden Sound! No doing whatever you want before the exam! Or do you want to fail before it even starts?" he said threateningly. The genin glared at the floor before looking back at Ibiki.

"I apologize. This is our first time taking the exams. It will not happen again."

"I'm only going to say this once, so listen up! There will be no battles, competitions, or the like without permission from the proctors. Even if you do get permission, actions to kill your opponent will not be permitted. Anyone that messes with me will be disqualified immediately," he threatened.

"Hmm, this exam looks easy," Zaku muttered. He quieted when Ibiki spoke.

"Now then, we will start the first test of the Chuunin Exam. Turn in your applications and take a number card. Sit at the desk with your number on it. Then we will hand out the written test."

When all the applicants were seated, Erina was seated between a pair of genin she had never seen before, one from Taki and the other from Iwa. Neither seemed very pleased to be sitting beside her but she didn't care. She would be done with this thing soon enough.

"Know those that commit awkward cheating doom themselves. If you want to be a chuunin, know that shinobi should act like exemplary shinobi. Also, if one team member gets zero points, the entire team shall be disqualified," he announced, grinning sadistically. "This test lasts one hour. The last question will be given after forty five minutes." The second hand on the clock twitched to twelve… "Begin!"

At once, all the genin turned over their papers, reading each question.

_Awkward cheating. So I'm allowed to cheat as long as I get away with it..._ Erina hummed to herself, thinking of what she had in her repertoire. Grinning, she made a single hand seal beneath the desk, silently thanking Gaara for explaining the theory to his third eye technique.

_Yin Release: Heavenly Seer! _A small ball of chakra formed in the palm of her hand that became silvery dust as she clenched her fist around it. The dust swirled upwards, reforming into an eye high above her. Erina shook her hair in front of her face, hiding as she closed her left eye.

As soon as her eye was closed, Erina could see in the point of view from the silver eye floating high above her, allowing her to see the answers of the other applicants. She soon found an applicant that had no problems answering the question. Honing in on his paper, Erina began to write out the answers herself.

The forty five minutes sped by as the same teams were disqualified. Pacing the front, Ibiki stopped and turned to the genin.

"All right! Here is the tenth question," he announced. "But, before that, I'm going to add some rules for the last question. Let me explain… These are the hopeless rules.

"First," he began, "You guys will have to choose whether or not you will take this tenth question."

"What do you mean, choose?" an Ame genin called. "What happens if you don't take the question?"

"If you choose not to take this question, your score will be zero. In other words, you will fail," Ibiki said, smiling evilly. Erina hid a frown. For not choosing to take the question be so harsh a punishment, the alternative must be severe as well. "And of course, the same goes for your teammates."

The room got louder as the genin protested the rule. They quieted when Ibiki spoke again.

"And one more rule," he said, looking down. "If you choose to take it and are unable to answer correctly, then you will lose your right to take the Chuunin Exams ever again!"

"What kind of ridiculous rule is that! Besides, there are plenty of people here who have taken the Chuunin Exams before!" one of the Leaf's rookies, an Inuzuka, shouted, indignant. His young ninken barked in agreement while Ibiki laughed, silencing the room once more.

"You're just unlucky," he said, staring at the genin. "I make the rules this year. But, I give you the option to go back. For those of you who aren't confident, you can choose not to take it and take the exam next year or the year after that. Let's begin," Ibiki growled. "The tenth question… Those who will not be taking it: raise your hands! Once I confirm your number, leave the room."

A Konoha genin was the first to leave, taking his team with him out the door. More and more genin raised their hands and Erina saw Naruto tense up. Briefly she wondered what he was going to do.

Eventually, watching the teams dwindle down, Naruto slowly raised his hand, causing a smile to bloom on Erina's face. _No conviction_.

The smile froze when he slammed his hand on the table, getting up to yell at the proctor.

"Don't underestimate me! I won't run! I'll take it, but even if I'm stuck being a genin forever, I will become Hokage whatever it takes! I'm not scared!"

Apparently finished, Naruto sat down, arms crossed and a smile invariably on his face. Erina was frozen, staring at her brother. He didn't make sense. It was wrong. No.

"I'll say it again. This is a life altering decision. If you want to quit, now is your chance!" No one moved. Ibiki strode forward, counting the genin. Ibiki glanced around at the sentinel ninja, each nodding their head. "I like your determination! For those who are still here… The first exam… You've passed it!" he announced. Erina scoffed, trying to recover from the shock of Naruto's surprising decision, but Sakura was the first to speak.

"What- what does that mean? All of a sudden, you're telling us that we all passed!" she shouted, standing at her desk. "What about the tenth question?"

"There never was a tenth question," Ibiki said, laughing. "Well, you can look at your decision to stay as the tenth question." He smiled.

"Hey! Then what were the first nine questions for! It was just a waste of time!" What's-His-Name shouted. Erina glared at him.

"Baka. He was testing our information gathering skills."

Ibiki nodded at her before proceeding to explain the first exam in detail. Unfortunately Ibiki's speech was cut short by the flying ball of cloth that was Mitarashi Anko. Two kunai later and the banner was up, separating Ibiki from the genin.

"You guys! It is not time to celebrate yet! I'm the proctor of the second exam, Mitarashi Anko!" she shouted to the genin. Ibiki's head appeared from behind the new curtain.

"Read the atmosphere," he said emotionlessly. Anko glanced at the genin.

"78?" she asked. "You let 26 teams slide by? I guess the first exam was too easy this time 'round."

"It seems that this time there are a lot of excellent candidates," he growled. Anko shrugged, looking back at the genin.

"Hmm… Well, all right… I'll drop more than half of them in the second exam," she said confidently. "I'll give you the details tomorrow. We'll be changing locations, so get a jounin to tell you the time and place. That's it, dismissed!"

A hand shot out and grabbed at Erina's ankle, stopping her foot half an inch before it slammed into the training post. She was panting but that didn't stop her from glaring at the intruder.

"Leave me alone," she growled.

"Not likely. We aren't supposed to be destroying Konoha for another month," Gaara said, glancing pointedly at the gouge marks and chips in the wood.

"I don't care. Baki won't care if a training ground in the middle of nowhere gets a few more miles on it," she shot back, shaking her leg loose. Gaara let it go without a struggle but crossed his arms with a reprimanding look in his eyes.

"Talk," he ordered. Erina scoffed, returning her attention to the training post and resuming her abuse of it.

"What's there to say?" she said between kick. Each hit the post took left it quivering. "You saw him today. He wants to be the fucking Hokage? Please. He's just going to get himself killed."

"I thought you didn't care."

"I. Don't!" she shouted.

"You could have fooled me."

"Shut up!" One last kick, unintentionally fueled with too much chakra, slammed into the post with a resounding _snap_ as the specially treated wood cracked and split, leaving a long crevasse down the side of the post. Erina punched the wood one last time, not caring as her fist slammed a little too close to the new fissure in the wood. Pulling her hand away, she scowled at the long splinters buried into her knuckles. Gaara seized her hand before she could punch at the post again and make it worse.

"He is not what you anticipated. That is fine," he said slowly, picking out the biggest of the splinters and ignoring the way Erina flinched at his words. "He is not as weak as you believed. That is fine. You are still far more powerful than he. He does not share your pain. He will never understand you."

"But I can't know that! Not... Not now," Erina mumbled, her shoulders shaking. "What... What if he _does_ know? What if Konoha treated him as Suna has treated us? And he... He would have been alone. We at least had each other, even if we were distant for so long."

"... And if his life threatens your home? _Our_ home? Will you risk so much on a boy on the chance that he might understand?"

"I... I suppose not."


	7. The Forest of Death

Erina woke up from an uneasy sleep to an empty hotel room. After a few moments, she catch sight of the note Gaara had left for her, explaining the he and their teammate had gone on ahead to the training ground Baki had pointed out for the second task. Reading it, Erina chuckled to herself when Gaara asked her to hurry before he killed their 'teammate.'

Gathering her equipment, she jumped out of the window and sprinted across the rooftops towards the Forest of Death.

Erina watched Naruto throughout the introduction of the second task. He was an idiot that seemed to have no sense of self-preservation and showed no understanding of the real world. He claimed to want to be Hokage but he seemed unable to recognize the responsibilities and the weight behind such leadership.

"Before we start the second exam, you all need to sign these," Anko announced, holding the waivers. "It's a consent form; you must sign it before I can begin the test. From here on out, there will be deaths. You have to sign these, or I'll get blamed for it," she said, smiling. She went through explaining the rules and the time limit.

"Five days!" Sakura's blonde rival leaned forward. The Akimichi rookie paled.

"What will we do for food?" he asked, almost crying,

"Hunt. Eat or be eaten. There are things in this forest that will not hesitate to swallow you whole… I recommend going for the smaller prey."

"That forest is teeming with man-eating creatures, poisonous bugs, and poisonous plants," Kabuto smiled. After hearing more and more of the risks, the Nara kid raised his hand.

"So, can we quit in the middle of it?" he asked tiredly. Anko gave him a harsh smile.

"According to the rules, no. I want you to spend five days in that forest."

"Just like I thought… This is going to be such a pain," he complained.

"Moving on, conditions of disqualification. Number one, if all three members can't make it to the tower by the end of five days with both scrolls. Number two, if a team loses a member or a member becomes incapacitated. Also, do not look at the scrolls until you've reached the tower! That's it for the rules; give all three of your consent forms to the guys over there. After that, pick the gate you want to go in by. The gates will open simultaneously." Anko stopped, sighing. "Finally, I'm supposed to give you a word of advice or something. Don't die!"

Handing in the consent forms, Erina received a heaven scroll.

"So," she murmured, taking off one of my braces to reveal, on the underside of her arm, a series of small seals. While Suna wasn't well known for their use of sealing techniques, they had a few basic ones perfected. Storage seals-such as the one where she stored the scroll-were almost painfully easy to learn for Erina, though she credited that largely to her parents. "Are we thinning out the crowd or getting to the tower?"

"Let's take down a few brats," What's-His-Name grinned. Gaara stared at him levelly until he began to shake. "I mean, um... If that's alright with you two."

"We should track down five teams, take their scrolls, and then head towards the tower. If we meet any teams on the way..." Erina grinned. Gaara nodded his approval and What's-His-Name smiled hesitantly. "Good. Now keep up and stay out of any fights. You can't die yet, or we'll be disqualified."

"H-Hai."

"Let's go," Gaara said, staring into the forest.

Traces of an opposing team were found in the first twenty minutes of the task, surprising even Gaara. Judging by the sheer amount of evidence left behind, Erina had guessed that the team was one of Konoha's rookies but, upon catching up to the team in question, she was stunned to discovered that they were a reasonably experienced Iwa team. Their experience didn't matter much against Gaara, though. Gaara held them still while she and What's-His-Name relieved the trio of anything useful, the scroll included. When the search was done, the Iwa genin were granted a quick and mostly painless death. A bonus of the whole experience was that, after watching Gaara crush three teenagers to death without remorse, the jinchuurikis' stand-in teammate quieted down quite a bit.

Deciding to not waste time and head directly to the tower, Gaara and Erina planned to target other teams on the way to the finish line. A few older Konoha teams were quickly torn apart, along with a team from Kusa and Kiri. The Oto team briefly crossed paths with the Suna trio but the Oto spies knew well enough to break off before any of them got themselves hurt.

With the designated number of teams defeated and a nice collection of scrolls built up to guarantee that the competition later was thinned out, the trio turned their eyes to the tower, ending the task with a total of seven scrolls-five heaven scrolls and two earth scrolls-in a record breaking two hours and sixteen minutes.

"-preliminaries."

Erina only heard one word of the Hokage's speech and she wasn't too impressed. She'd let Konoha's rookies embarrass themselves by complaining about it, though, and- There they go.

"We just got out of that damn forest! Now we have to fight again?" Naruto screeched.

"This is so troublesome," the Nara grumbled.

"Ahem, Hokage-sama? If I may?" a sickly looking man said, bringing the attention to him. "We _may _need to do preliminaries. People from all over the nations come to witness the Chuunin Exams, including village leaders, families of participants, and, most importantly, potential clients. As Hokage-sama explained, these exams allow each village to show their strength. It is important, therefore, that we do not waste their time or bore them with having too many fights. That is why we are offering any of you who do not feel up to this next round to opt out now. This last test consists of individual fights, one on one. If you are not up to it, opt out now."

There was a moment as teammates turned to one another and talked it over. Five teams had passed: two rookie Konoha teams, a slightly older Konoha team, the Oto team, and the Suna trio.

_One on one fights means..._

"If you value your life, opt out," Gaara ordered to What's-His-Name. He paled drastically as his choice was made very easy. He raised his hand, bringing the proctor's attention to him. He was already a chuunin; his participation thus far had only been a ruse to make sure the jinchuuriki got through to the last round. His mission was done.

"Uhm, yeah. Can I opt out?" he asked, scratching the back of his head.

"Sure... Okay. You're good," the proctor-Gekkou or something-acknowledged, writing down his name. The Suna chuunin left quietly.

His exit evidently weakened the resolve of some of the other genin. The girls from the rookie teams left and the chubby boy on one of the teams looked like he was about to before his teammate stopped him.

"Alright... Ahem... That leaves us with... twelve remaining participants." Gekkou looked to the Hokage who must have made some signal because the proctor then cleared his throat with a smile on his face. "Twelve is few enough that we do not require a preliminary. Everyone step forward and take a number."

After a few moments of activity, Gekkou seemed pleased with the results.

"The first round of the tournament shall be as follows: Rock Lee vs. Dosu; Nara Shikamaru vs. Kin; Hyuuga Neji vs. Uzumaki Naruto; Namikaze Erina vs. Tenten; Sabaku no Gaara vs. Zaku; and, lastly, Akimichi Chouji vs. Uchiha Sasuke. The final test will be a tournament held in one month. Take that time to recuperate and prepare for your battles."

_Tenten_... Erina glanced around the arena to find the brunette staring at her curiously. Actually... If Erina's gut was correct, this wasn't just some girl playing at being a kunoichi. She was analyzing her, trying to assess her while she was given the opportunity. Erina let a smirk form on her lips. Looks like it will be a fun month...

It was not a fun month. While the original plan was for the passing Suna genin to be recalled back to go over final plans, the reality that only two genin out of the thirty entered made it to the final round made debriefing less necessary. As a result, the jinchuuriki were left to train in and around Konoha. Of course, not being home gave them ample opportunity to get to know the village's weaknesses but, in all honestly, it wasn't like Gaara-who would be doing most of the smashing-really had much influence on what he destroyed.

The training part of the month was fine. What was nowhere within the _realm_ of fine, however, were the occasional brushes with one Uzumaki Naruto. Despite her efforts, he always seemed to be there when she least expected him. If she wanted to get an aerial view of the city? He was already sitting at the top of the Hokage Monument. If she was hungry after training? He was already halfway through a bowl of ramen at the first restaurant she sees. It just wasn't fair.

Spending time even near him hurt. The more she saw, the more she realized that they were the same. He was given the same glares, the same lack of respect or acknowledgment. The only difference was that Erina had decided to _do something_ about the abuse and neglect.

The same reason driving her further away from her mission also made it that much more pressing; for her to fail this mission would be to fail her goal. She would complete it to the best of her ability, because that was all she could do. The mission was designed to protect her home and nothing- not even the fact that she would be destroying Naruto's- would stop or slow her.


	8. Into the Arena

The day of the final exam arrived with much anticipation and highly strung nerves as the genin finished last-minute preparations. Naruto prepared to finally tell the world that he wasn't going down without a fight, and Erina gathered her strength and resolve to harden her heart before the battle began. This wouldn't just be a siege; it would be the decisive move in a war. Konoha would fall, or Suna would die. If Suna was to end, however, Erina would make sure to put up one hell of a fight.

Intel came easily to the Suna jinchuuriki and Erina was hardly concerned about her opponent. Her first opponent's aim wouldn't matter if each of her weapons were knocked out of the air before they came close. Training her wind affinity took some time but it also gave Erina an excuse to get a new weapon: a chakra conductive wakizashi and a small, hand held fan.

"There are no rules in these battles," the proctor said to the genin gathered in the pit of the arena, his words half-muffled by the noise of the spectators. Gekkou Hayate was no longer the proctor, having been replaced by a man named Genma after the former's mysterious death. "The matches continue until one fighter dies or acknowledges defeat. However, if I determine that a match is finished, it will stop there. No arguments will be tolerated on that front. Understood?"

There was a tense silence as Erina glanced over the other genin in the arena. As opposed to the twelve they had anticipated, their numbers were cut to ten. Dosu had met an unfortunate and painful end by Gaara's sand after the fool had challenged him to a fight and the Akimichi boy from Konoha had opted out just days before. As a result, Rock Lee was set to fight the Uchiha at the end of the first round.

"The first fight of round one is between Nara Shikamaru and Tsuchi Kin. Will all other contestants return to the stands?"

Erina watched the fight with little interest. While the girl's style was interesting, it played too heavily into the theme of sound-based techniques that the Oto team harbored. With such an established pattern, they were easy to break down. The Nara boy, having come from a clan of certifiable geniuses, easily picked her apart in short order, knocking her out within ten minutes.

"You are Namikaze Erina-san, yes?"an unfamiliar voice asked as Genma called for Neji and Naruto to come down into the arena. She turned to see the jumpsuit-wearing genin from Konoha, Rock Lee.

"Yes, I am."

"Is it true what is said, then? That you and your teammate, Sabaku no Gaara, are prodigies of Sunagakure?" Lee asked curiously. Seeing no subterfuge in the question, Erina frowned a little hesitantly.

"Some people could think that, I guess. Why?"

"Neji-kun is my most youthful rival," Lee responded with a bright smile, gesturing to the arena where the Hyuuga and Naruto had just arrived. "He is a prodigy of talent, while I am a prodigy of hard work! I shall prove by defeating him in these exams that hard work can defeat pure talent any day!"

"Erina," Gaara's voice rang out behind her. She turned to face her teammate, who was staring dispassionately at the Konoha genin. "I must speak to you."

"Ah, okay. It was nice to talk to you, Rock-san."

"You as well, Namikaze-san. I wish you luck in your fight!" Lee replied with a bright smile and a thumbs up. Tenten scowled, popping out of nowhere to punch her teammate in the back of the head.

"Baka! That's my opponent! What are you wishing her luck for?" she demanded, seemingly enraged. As Lee attempted to assuage his teammate, Erina followed Gaara into the hallway.

"What is it?" she asked after scanning the hall for any potential listeners.

"The plan is altered ever so slightly. We are to prolong the exams and exhaust or eliminate as many of the genin as possible. Assuming that one of us makes it into the final round, that is when the signal will be given to start."

"And if we lose?" Erina asked. Gaara actually scoffed and she laughed, a feral light in her eyes. "Okay, then... I think my fight is about to start. I better go."

"Have fun," Gaara said blandly. "And don't get yourself hurt."

"Aw, thanks, Gaara-kun."

"Shut up."

Erina whistled as she surveyed the damage wrought upon the arena from the previous fight. From what the data implied, this wasn't the work of a Hyuuga. Naruto was the destructive one, then. She would have to be careful to put him down quietly when it was time for them to fight, as they would undoubtedly fight in a coming round.

"The third match of the first round: Tenten of Konohagakure versus Namikaze Erina of Sunagakure! Are both contestants ready?"

"Born ready," Tenten said with a grin, getting into a wide stance. Erina nodded to the proctor, laying her hand on the wakizashi about her waist delicately.

"... Begin!" Genma shouted, leaping to a safe distance.

Tenten made the first move, drawing a handful of shuriken from her pouch to test the waters. Erina allowed the shuriken to approach and bent around them, leaning and ducking to avoid being hit. Before she could decide if she wanted to counterattack, Tenten was on the move again. There was a large puff of smoke before a katana appeared in one hand and a tanto in her other.

"Let's see how good you are with that sword!" she roared almost happily, excited to try her blades against another. Erina drew her blade to block the first strike and spun around quickly to smack the flat of her wakizashi against the tanto. She allowed Tenten to set the pace of the fight, taking her time to tire the girl out before, seeing her window, launching a vicious kick to the slightly older girl's ribs and sending her flying towards the large rocks dominating a section of the arena.

"You are good with those swords, but it is not your primary attack. What is?" Erina asked in a slow and deliberate fashion as the brunette caught her breath. Making Tenten lose her cool would deprive her of her weapons later, making her an easy target during the attack.

"You want to see my primary attack?!" she shouted. Erina didn't respond but held her wakizashi aloft in a challenge. Tenten growled wordlessly at the girl before throwing her swords to the ground, reaching behind her, and seizing the large scroll at the small of her back. She rolled it open with gusto as Erina waited patiently, one hand absentmindedly drawing her fan.

"That is an impressive array of storage seals but even storage seals hold limitations. Your arsenal is limited by the size of your arrays and the size of your array is limited by the accessibility and maneuverability necessary for a scroll in order to be used in combat. Though the concept is an interesting one, it is fundamentally flawed."

Tenten smirked, tapping an array and unsealing another, smaller scroll. Erina rolled her eyes as she began to fan herself- a calculation. Her gamble worked out and weapons began flying through the air towards her.

"About time," she murmured. Just before the weapons met their target, Erina twisted her wrist out and a burst of wind flew from her fan, knocking all of the projectiles astray towards the trees. The entire time, her eyes never left Tenten's face. Throwing the scroll away, Tenten drew another, then a third. Each time she launched an attack, Erina would deflect the weapons at the last moment, regardless of the angle of attack or launch interval of the weapons. "You have the worst enemy you could. You are a mid or long range support fighter that uses weapons as your primary attack. Me... Well..."

Erina disappeared in a swirl of sand and Tenten froze as sudden pain overtook her senses. Erina, appearing behind her opponent as she left the shunshin, swept her leg out and knocked Tenten's legs out from under her before grabbing the girl by an ankle and throwing her head first towards the trees. More than one person in the audience winced as Tenten sailed passed the relatively painless trees and slammed into the ground, where all of her discarded weapons had been sent by the casual flicks of Erina's fan.

"I believe she is finished, proctor," Erina said to Genma, raising her eyes as she continued to fan herself. Genma jumped to Tenten's side to assess her condition. He stood after a moment and looked to the crowds.

"Due to Tenten of Konohagakure's inability to continue the match, Namikaze Erina of Sunagakure wins the fight and continues to round two!" He called for medics and Erina took a moment to examine Tenten's scrolls.

"She built in a returning seal..." she murmured to herself, tracing the seal before making a ram seal and tapping the seal. The loose weapons on the ground disappeared with a puff of smoke and Erina rolled the scroll up and glanced towards her fallen opponent.

"Medic-san," she called, walking over to one of the two medic nins assessing the girl's injuries and prepping her for the move to the medical wing. Erina held the scroll out to the medic that seemed less busy. "Please ensure that Tenten-san receives her weapons when she awakens. She was a worthy opponent."

"Yeah, sure," the medic grumbled before looking to his colleague. "Let's get her onto the stretcher. She'll need immediate treatment for some of these... Talk about digging your own grave..."

Her duty finished, Erina returned to the competitor's stands in another suna shunshin just as Gaara disappeared for his fight. She was caught off guard when a fist appeared in her peripheral vision before slamming into her cheek, throwing her vision off for a brief second as she recovered.

"Why did you do that?!"

It was Naruto, of course.

"Why did I do what?" Erina asked in a low voice as she looked at her brother. He was shaking with anger as one of his hands pointed down into the arena.

"Why did you do that to Tenten?" he asked in a dangerous tone. She might have been scared if she was an Academy student.

"Did I kill her? No. Did I even permanently injure or disable her? Not even close. If your medics are competent, she will be on her feet in a couple of days and back to training in a week."

"You don't know that, you-"

"Naruto-kun," Lee interrupted quietly, more somber than I had seen him so far. "Do not be mad at Namikaze-san. She has showed Tenten where she is weak and, once she is recovered, she shall be stronger for it."

"I imagine I hurt her pride a hell of a lot more than I hurt her body. Though I'll admit, it's good to see that not all of your village's kunoichi are just girls playing at being ninja," Erina said with a disdainful sniff.

"What's that to mean?" Naruto growled. Erina raised an eyebrow.

"What I mean to say is that the two rookie girls that I saw were pathetic fangirls. Being a kunoichi isn't about getting a husband and living happily ever after. Failing to realize that means that the entire team is more vulnerable and will only get themselves hurt or killed in the field. Children who want happy ever after don't deserve a hitai-ate."

"Oh, and you're so much better than Sakura-chan?" Naruto all but roared, furious.

The entire crowd watching the exams gasped and cried out in horror and Erina sighed.

"It's about time he finished him off," she murmured to herself. She glanced over towards the arena where Gaara was standing near a very large and chunky pile of blood that used to be one of the Oto genin. The loudmouth, Zaku, if Erina remembered correctly.

"What... What did he do?" Naruto asked, horrified. Erina met his eyes coolly.

"Children who want happy ever after don't deserve a hitai-ate. This is the life we lead. Just because some of us lie about it or cover it up behind a mask doesn't change the truth."

"There's... There's nothing left," Shikamaru said with a disgusted look into the arena from where he stood, a little ways away. He glanced up at Naruto, and then to Erina. "He is your teammate?" Erina saw the unasked question in his narrowed eyes.

"What just happened was not cruelty but mercy. Zaku's death was quick and mostly painless. It is all we as shinobi can ask of our killers."

"He murdered him," Naruto asked, his voice weak.

"Murder is a strong word. If their places were reversed, if Zaku had been the stronger, he would have killed Gaara in a heartbeat. Those who wish to deny Gaara's existence all meet the same end."

"That's-" Lee was at a loss for words. "That is..."

"That is the life we lead," Erina repeated. "Past the facade, it is kill or be killed. Villages rise and fall, Kage come and go, but we will always kill to save ourselves. It is no different with us in this room. The treaty between our countries is thin at best. It will fail within our lifetime. We will be at war soon and, when we meet again on the battlefield, I will not hesitate to kill any of you."

"Thank you for your ringing praise, Erina," Gaara said in a monotone as he stepped back into the room. Erina smirked at him.

"I supposed I might spare your life, Gaara-_kun_."

"Don't call me that or I will end your life."

"I dare you to try," Erina shot back, unconcerned when a tendril of sand shot out at her. She remained nonplussed until the sand was wrapping itself around her throat.

"What are you doing?" Naruto shouted out as more sand joined the . "She's your teammate!"

"There is still blood in this sand," Erina complained as the sand's reddish hues were passed onto her tan skin. "You know how hard blood is to get off."

"Stay out of this, kid. This is one lover's spat you don't want to get in between," a familiar voice announced as an older blonde stepped into the competitor's box. The sand fell away from Erina's neck as she smiled brightly at the newcomer.

"Temari-chan!"


	9. Change of Plans

"Temari-chan! Why are you here?"

"Father sent me to collect you, and Gaara."

"He would have us miss the Uchiha's match?" Gaara asked. Erina recognized the incredulous straightening of his shoulders, but she doubted anyone else did. Erina frowned.

"I was looking forward to the Uchiha getting his ass handed to him."

"I'm only the messenger," Temari shrugged.

"And there's no arguing with Kazekage-sama," Erina grumbled under her breath. She glanced over to Rock Lee just as the proctor called for him, evidently decided that the arena was as clean as it was going to get after Gaara's display. "I wish you luck, Rock-san. Gaara?"

The two genin followed after Temari out of the competitor box and through a series of hallways until she stopped outside a door. Temari knocked on the door four times. A familiar face opened the door but Erina couldn't pin a name to the jounin's face.

"Ah, come in, come in," he said quickly. He shut the door as soon as they were passed the threshold, and the two genin stepped up to where Baki was sitting before several jounin and chuunin.

"Gaara, Erina," he greeted, a tension in his voice and body that Erina never saw before. _War_, she assumed. This was the start of a war, after all. "I'm sure you know why I've called you here."

"We will be slotted against one another in the next round of matches," Gaara said succinctly. "One of us will have to forfeit so that we both may fight to our full capacity during the attack."

"Yes. If you two do face each other, the Kazekage has decided that you, Erina, will forfeit. After Gaara's match, it would not be unexpected."

"Understood. Am I to stay in the arena after forfeiting?" Erina asked curiously. The last briefing she had attended had suggested a potential weakness in the attack aimed at the administrative building. Certain buildings in a village are first to get locked down. As the home to nearly all village records- mission logs, shinobi files, and international intelligence included- the administrative building was always a top priority. Having even ninja get inside and wreak havoc would unbalance Konoha perhaps irreparably. _Or_, Erina thought, _having even one kunoichi._

"Yes. Your task remains the same. Protect Gaara. Divert the Konoha jinchuuriki from him at any cost."

"Yes, sir," Erina acknowledged, glancing at Gaara. While she understood that, as a jinchuuriki, Gaara was a top asset, she also knew that he didn't exactly need protection. The plan had logic behind it, though; who better than one Kyuubi jinchuuriki to defeat another? It was poetry in action.

"You two are dismissed. There should be a brief intermission before the next round begins. Do not arouse suspicions."

"Of course."

Gaara and Erina turned back and, led by Temari, returned to the competitor's box. Just as they arrived, a flustered looking man with a Konoha headband entered. He checked a clipboard tucked under his arm often, as if he expected whatever was written there to change..

"Competitors, there has been a change in schedule. Due to Nara Shikamaru's decision to forfeit-" Erina glanced around to confirm that he was really gone. That was odd... "-Uzumaki Naruto shall now be fighting against Namikaze Erina. Sabaku no Gaara shall face Uchiha Sasuke. Both of your Kages have approved of this change. You have until the end of the intermission to prepare for your battles."

The man, with another glance at his clipboard, breezed out of the room, leaving Gaara and Erina alone with Naruto. Sasuke and Lee were both gone, but another glance told Erina that they were no longer fighting.

"Where are Rock-san and Uchiha-san?" she asked, directing her question to Naruto.

"Medical, probably," he said with an uncaring shrug.

"Do you know why Nara-san forfeited?" she pressed. This was not the plan. She was supposed to forfeit to Gaara, not fight Naruto so soon. All things considered, though, this might work out better. If she could tag a seal onto her opponent or even nick him with some seriously poisoned senbon, she'd be better freed up to fight during the real battle.

"No clue. Probably thought it was troublesome," Naruto said with a chuckle. After a long pause, he turned his blue eyes onto Erina with a slight frown on his face. "I'm sorry, I guess. You and Tenten had to fight. I know you wouldn't have hurt her if you didn't need to."

"Uzumaki-san, is Konoha important to you?" Erina asked suddenly, earning surprised looks from both boys in the room. Naruto wasn't quiet for long, though.

"Of course it is! It's my home. And I'm gonna be Hokage one day, ya know!"

"But you aren't now. Would you do anything to protect your home?"

"Yeah, I guess." Erina wasn't even almost impressed. She drew a kunai, holding it up between the two of them.

"If your Hokage asked you to do it, would you take this kunai and slit my throat? Gaara's? Your own?"

"What? I wouldn't do it! That makes no sense," Naruto shouted out. Gaara scoffed, but. when Naruto turned to him, he wasn't looking at the other boy. Erina glanced towards her teammate and found him looking back at her intently, understanding in his pale eyes.

Erina had needed to know, and Gaara understood. Naruto was nothing like them. He might not have been coddled in Konoha, but he was still weak. He may not lack conviction, but he lacked the strength to act on that conviction.

Erina would face her brother in this tournament. She might not kill him, but he would not be battling anyone after she was done with him.

Sarutobi Hiruzen, third Hokage of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, watched with some trepidation as Namikaze Erina and Uzumaki Naruto stepped into the arena. They were brother and sister yet they were forced to fight against one another. The proctor would prevent any true damage to either child but Hiruzen was old enough to be worried about everything. He had predicted so many things about this day and none of them had been true.

From witness just one round of battles, he knew that Naruto would not win this fight. Naruto was strong for a rookie, but this was a rookie he was facing. Naruto would not be able to draw on the Kyuubi's power, either, because Erina could likely do the same. Naruto's strategist ability was limited to improvisation but Erina, through her strategy against the Tenten girl, had already proven her mind's sharpness. Erina was deadly efficient with a sword and who knows what other weapons; Naruto could hardly use a kunai correctly. Erina showed a certain mastery over wind chakra; Hiruzen knew that Kakashi hadn't even touched elemental jutsu with his students.

Naruto wouldn't win. This would be a humiliating loss, made worse only by Naruto's strong desire to never give up and never give in. He would not forfeit. Erina, if she was all that Hiruzen was afraid she was, would destroy him.

Hiruzen sent a sideways glance at his fellow Kage. Minato and the Yondaime Kazekage had been rivals, true, but they had been as close as the aftermath of war allowed them. Their wives had been close enough to allow for the marriage contract that landed Hiruzen in this mess, for Kami's sake! What happened to the gentleness that had led Minato and Kushina to entrust their precious child to the harsh deserts? Was it truly gone? Was it ever really there?

A hush fell over the arena as the proctor spoke softly to the two children about to fight. Rumors had flown around the arena during intermission, bets had been changed, and money traded hands. Someone had finally recognized Erina's last name and everyone present, from the Academy students to the civilian nobility, were nervous.

Namikaze Minato had been an orphan, as nearly everyone knew. His family had originated somewhere in Kaze no Kuni but immigrated to Hi no Kuni during the Second Great Shinobi War. While no one knew exactly who this girl bearing their Yondaime's name was, there was already an assumption that the two were related in some way. Her coloring was different, but red hair was reasonably common to Suna. It was all too possible that she had those cerulean eyes and sunny hair somewhere in her ancestry and that sent a shiver of fear or anticipation through everyone present.

The demon child against the relative of the man who had managed to defeat him. It wasn't irony, but there was a certain amount of beauty in history repeating itself in this odd manner.

The proctor threw one hand up, calling for silence. The crowd was already waiting with baited breath, however.

"The first match of the semi-finals: Uzumaki Naruto of Konoha versus Namikaze Erina of Suna. Are both contestants ready?"

"You bet!" Naruto cheered impatiently.

Erina gently laid one hand on her sword's hilt, nodding sharply.

"Begin!"


	10. Rule 4

Erina narrowed her eyes at her brother as the proctor officially started the match and jumped a safe distance back. She hadn't been able to see Naruto's fight—she had to expect anything from the blond jinchuuriki. Luckily, she hadn't shown her hand either, giving away as little as possible in her match against Tenten. This match would be as blind as possible for both fighters, but Erina knew that she could probably beat Naruto down hard and fast enough that she'd avoid major injury.

"I won't be holding back, no matter what!" Naruto shouted with a brilliant grin on his face, drawing a kunai and lowering himself into a ready stance.

"Stop telling me and show me."

"I already am," the blond said with a happy smirk. Erina's eyes widened as her senses picked up a new source of chakra coming at her through the ground. She leapt back as quickly as she could, but not soon enough—a clone burst free from the ground, grabbing her ankle with one hand and preventing her from escaping. Erina slammed her free leg into the clone, dispelling it into a burst of smoke, and landed roughly on the broken ground. Cursing under her breath, she reviewed what she remembered of the arena after Naruto's fight with the Hyuuga boy.

_There had been so much damage. A Hyuuga's attacks wouldn't have had that large an effect on the area—it had all been Naruto. He beat a Hyuuga in close or mid-range. I need to get farther away._

When Erina looked for Naruto, however, he was already long-gone, having used his clone as a distraction. She growled under her breath, drawing her sword with one hand and her small fan in the other.

"I didn't think hiding was your style," Erina called, hoping to goad the boy into the open. She was left caught between happy and disappointed that it actually worked as a volley of kunai flew out from the tree cover. Deciding that it would be best to keep an eye on the weapons so that Naruto couldn't use them again, Erina snapped her fan shut and ducked low, avoiding the majority of the weapons and deflecting the rest with her sword.

Dodging the weapons instead of sending them off course had bought Naruto time to make his move. He charged out of the trees, creating a dozen clones without any indications that he was tired from the jutsu. The clones surrounded Erina and she found herself in the middle of a mob. The clones fought like brawlers, grabbing at her ankles and wrists, attempting heavy haymakers, and caring little for their own safety. It was only years of practice against Gaara's sand that kept Erina from taking much damage from the onslaught, ducking and weaving through the blows and slicing where she could. The mob never seemed to end—Erina was convinced that Naruto was creating more clones as quickly as she was destroying them—but she couldn't disengage. She could slide a few feet in any direction, but the mob was constantly surrounding her and, at times, she was surrounded by three rings of blond genin.

"Enough!" Erina shouted, opening her small fan and whipping it in front of her, clearing a path for her to escape. Clones started to fill in the gauntlet and Erina sprinted out of their reach, dancing away and wielding her fan with extreme prejudice to sweep the clones out of her way. Sheathing her sword and drawing a tagged kunai from her holster in one fluid motion, Erina let the explosive do its work and take out the rest of the clones as she got the distance she needed to catch her breath after the onslaught of clones.

Erina took a steadying breath and moved her hands into seals for the first time.

"_Suna bunshin_," she muttered, forming a half dozen sand clones, taking care to load each with as much chakra as she dared. Naruto could have his clones—now she had hers. The only difference was that he needed to constantly recreate his clones, while hers would recreate themselves until the chakra she'd formed them with was depleted. With the last few moments of peace she could risk, Erina directed the clones to where Naruto's original mob had attacked her.

_Strategy—I need to put him down hard and fast. If he's anything like I am, I won't be able to let him tire himself out. Our battle of attrition could go on for days if I'm not smart…_ _I normally get in close to take people down, but he defeated a Hyuuga in close-combat. I don't want to risk too much energy on those odds alone. I was cleared to pull __**him**__ out, but I'd rather avoid that if I can._

_**Can you just shut up and pull me out? I can feel it—my other half—biting at the bit on this one. **_Hearing the Kyuubi speak made Erina's decision slightly easier, but it was still risky. The intel Suna had suggested that Naruto had no sort of training with the Kyuubi, but she still had to be _sure_ that she could win. If that information was false, and Naruto had been trained to harness Kurama's energy, she could possibly lose.

That strain of thought reminded her of the resentment Naruto seemed to face in the village, which cemented the truth in Erina's mind. There was no way he was actually trained to harness the power the village feared and hated.

"Fight me yourself!" Erina roared, her order echoing off of the trees she had caught her breath among. She stepped out of the relative safety back onto the open ground. Naruto was standing on one of the large boulders breaking out of the earth, overlooking the battle of clones that was taking over part of the field, and he turned to meet Erina's eyes with a grin.

"I thought you'd never ask!" he bantered back, leaping down and settling down into a ready stance. Erina also slipped into a ready stance, but she took it a step further. She closed her eyes, focusing for a brief moment.

In the stands, Sarutobi Hiruzen's blood ran cold as he realized what was happening. His hands tightened around the ends of his armrests. Beside him, the Kazekage's lips turned up in a smirk.

A rush of wind whipped around Erina, causing her cropped red hair to flare up around her face. Chakra gathered around her on the wind and, when they opened, her eyes were a dark red color. Undisguised battle lust shone in those eyes and light glinted off of her sharpened canines when her lip curled into an anticipatory grin.

Across from Erina, Naruto was frozen with fear, shock, and what might have been shame.

"What's wrong, Naruto? You don't want to fight me on even grounds?" Erina purred, the Kyuubi slowly surfacing. Erina, in the most rational part of her mind, was recoiling from the betrayed look on Naruto's face

"You—how do you—" He was so utterly shocked that Erina almost didn't attack. She almost explained herself, but Erina wasn't one to monologue. It might have been more honorable to wait until he had recovered some of his wits, but Erina was a shinobi, not a samurai. She rushed forward, cocking her fist back.

To be honest, Erina hadn't expected the hit to land cleanly. It was because of that, she told herself, that her fist slammed into Naruto's jaw with enough force to create an audible _crack_ a split-second before he went flying. He hit the ground harshly, rolling and eventually sliding to a stop just a few feet away from the arena wall. Erina followed after him, but didn't attack immediately. An irrational part of her forced her to look at the aftermath of her haymaker before she could decide her next move.

Taking a look at the boy, the air was knocked from Erina's lungs and she fell to her knees. He had managed to get to his knees, but no further. His arm was bent in an unnatural place and he was covered in dirt and gashes that bled onto his orange clothes, dying the material. He probably could have continued fighting, but the _look_ he was giving her froze her in place.

_I __**hate**__ bullies… Weren't those my words?_

Naruto stared up at Erina with all the hurt and pain that she had buried in her heart. Those were the eyes she had looked up at the chuunin woman with all those years ago, right before she had stabbed her attacker in the gut and left her dead eyes staring at the hot sun in an alley.

"I'm—"

But Erina couldn't even apologize. Just like all those years ago, her apologies had run dry again.

"This match is over!" The proctor jumped down beside Naruto and Erina, holding a kunai in one hand as if to keep the Suna jinchuuriki away from her latest victim. Erina took a step back, willingly backing down and forcing Kurama's energy to ebb.

_**Killjoy**_, Kurama muttered as he returned to the seal, but he gave no other complaint.

"Namikaze Erina is the winner of this match," the proctor announced, looking as if he wanted to use the kunai in his grip to claw the girl's eyes out. Instead, he turned his head and called for the medics.

Erina remained rooted to the spot as the medics came, all whispering and peering at her out of the corner of their eyes, to take Naruto away for healing. It was only when he was out of her sight that she was able to move at all, but she still couldn't close her eyes without seeing his eyes—bright, blue, and betrayed, staring up at her. She told herself that it was unreasonable to feel that way—they were nearly at _war_, for Kami's sake!—but that wasn't as convincing as she'd hoped. Those eyes never forgave her, and that hurt never fully went away.

"Erina." Gaara's voice was soft as Erina entered the competitor's box. She felt numb, even as Gaara's hand reached out to grab her wrist. She jerked at the contact—Gaara rarely, if ever, initiated physical contact. It was a habit from his years of semi-isolation. If he didn't let anyone close, no one could hurt him as Yashamaru did. Erina understood, and she had never pressured him to be anything he wasn't. It wasn't like she exactly knew how to show affection for him or anyone else, either.

A bloom of warmth spread from Erina's wrist where Gaara had grabbed her and she started to look up at him. Behind the male jinchuuriki, though, Erina could see Naruto's teammate—the Uchiha. He didn't look sad for his teammate, but there was an anger about him that alerted her that he was more dangerous than his roughed up physique—still semi-injured from the battle with Rock Lee—suggested.

"Are you okay?" Gaara asked softly. Erina started to nod, but stopped herself, eventually settling into a frown.

"Does it matter?" she shot back just as softly. Her job was done for now. The Konoha jinchuuriki was knocked out of the fighting for the invasion. She could focus on protecting Gaara. Just because it was her brother that she had to defeat to accomplish her goals should mean nothing.

_A shinobi must always put the mission first._

"Doesn't it?" Gaara replied as the proctor called for the next two semi-finalists.

Sasuke pushed past the pair and Gaara was careful to keep an eye on the other boy until he was well out of the room. Even with the two of them alone, Gaara was stunned as he realized that he had never released Erina's wrist from his grip. He let her go as if her skin had burned his, but she was too lost in her thoughts to notice his reaction. Before he left, however hesitantly it might have been, Gaara still took care to tap his forefinger against her palm twice—the oldest code the two had ever needed while on missions.

With just that final message, Gaara followed Sasuke down to the arena floor, leaving Erina in her turbulent thoughts and slightly shaky hands. Those hands eventually tightened into fists, though, and she stared out of the competitor's box with a patched-up resolve and a quiet determination.

The code had been simple—_survive, or I'll kill you_—but, as the years past and the two became more comfortable around the other, the code changed from a demand to a hope—_survive, and we'll deal with the rest later._

Erina would follow that code. She would make sure that she survived long enough to sort out her head on her own time. She needed her head on straight if she wanted to make it through the battle ahead, and no bright blue eyes could distract her from that ultimate goal.


End file.
